richy
New member
- Mar 27, 2007
- 5,158
- 0
One of my L2D friends had sent me a sample of a super strong sealant from the beginning of the summer on the understanding I would do a review of it. It has been a long time coming (I told him it would be so that's OK) and today was the day. I also played with some new products and another that is not new, but is new to me.
Here's what was tested on this car:
Beta Sealant
CARPRO DLUX
Optimum Hyper Polish
DG medium cut chemical polish
Optimum Glass coating
Optimum Headlight coating
Flex 3401
The vehicle in question is my mother-in-law's 2001 Sunfire. I usually do this car once a year and often use it as a test bed for new products. The last product on it was the DG nano polish.
Here's the car as I got it:
Here's what was tested on this car:
Beta Sealant
CARPRO DLUX
Optimum Hyper Polish
DG medium cut chemical polish
Optimum Glass coating
Optimum Headlight coating
Flex 3401
The vehicle in question is my mother-in-law's 2001 Sunfire. I usually do this car once a year and often use it as a test bed for new products. The last product on it was the DG nano polish.
Here's the car as I got it:
First up was the wheels and tires. The wheels are plastic chrome caps. The corners of them had a build up that was not easy to remove. Wolf's did nothing to remove it. I ended up using Zep Citrus and a magic eraser to cut through it. that got rid of most of it. The tires were cleaned with Zep Purple. The wells were cleaned with ZC.
The car was foamed with a strong mix of Megs Hyper Wash and Dawn followed by a wash of Dawn and DG 901. The car was brought inside wet and was clayed with Elastofoam using ONR as lube. Paint and glass were clayed.
I turned my attention to the wheels first. I used a stronger version of the DG chemical cut cleaner/compound on them to try to remove the last of the grunge on them. It got rid of 90-95% of it. I then gave them an ERASER wipe down. I sealed them with Element 119. I had about 10% left in my bottle from earlier in the summer and this was my opportunity to use it up.
I am getting very comfortable using my new Flex 3401 now. I had ordered Optimum Hyper Polish on the last AG BOGO and this was my second time using it. The first time on a Fusion (I'll probably post it tomorrow) I used it as a finishing polish. Today it was used as a one step polish. I used a yellow B/S pad and it on 6. Man can you work this stuff a long time. I think I was napping at one point when it was still working away, LOL. In all seriousness though, unlike a normal DA, you can heat up the paint with the Flex. It has the power! I was able to remove a lot of small marks. I was very, very impressed with this combo!!
One thing I will point out is that it is harder to clean it out of the pad than M105 is. 105 will rinse out with just water. Not so HP. I used Dawn power dissolver and it worked like a champ.
The only detour I took with the polishing was the plastic piece on the back. It was in terrible shape. I used my Dyna rotary and a black Tuf Buff pad and Menz FG500 at about 2200 rpm to cut through the haze on it. I followed that up with the chemical cut on the Flex with a blue pad like the rest of the car.
After that stage, I used the DG light chemical cut cleaner to amp up the flake in the paint. It did a great time. I then did an ERASER wipe down. I was amazed at how incredibly slick the paint felt at this stage. It felt like it had a sealant on it already, it was so smooth!
Now came the beta sealant. This stuff is supposed to last for 7 years. I had questioned that obviously, it seems to good to be true for a regular applying sealant. Time will tell. I have been testing it in my shower for about 2 months and it's still going strong and this is one very aggressive test for a sealant!!
The sealant was applied in one of 2 ways: Either via DA with a red LCC pad or by hand. I first tried it with a mf applicator pad and it was horrible. It was way too grabby and did not spread well at all. I then tried a foam applicator pad and it was a dream. It is a thick product, and is not the easiest to spread, but this worked as well as the DA, and I wanted to make sure I had it on thick enough to get good protection. Removal was a breeze. 1/2 the car was done via DA, and half by hand. The surface had a wonderful glow to it and was quite slick.
So far, very high marks for this product. I will be watching it to see how it handles our Canadian winter.
I was looking forward to trying out my CARPRO DLUX and the door handles were a good candidate for this product. I left it on longer on the passenger side before removal and it looked darker and wetter so I re-applied it to the driver's side and let it dwell longer. I really like the look!
I had received a sample of Optimum glass coating. I use OG on glass all the time with no problem. You need to remove any residue pretty fast but otherwise I really like it. This glass-specific coating is supposed to be resistant to the abrasion of the wipers and last a lot longer than OG will on glass. All I've got to say is that it is incredibly easy to apply! You wipe it on and it just disappears. I went over it with a light wiper just to be safe, but what an amazing product. It is also a different colour...a bit yellowy. I used a suede mf and block to apply it.
I then tried the headlight coating. I just put it on with the foam applicator and didn't touch it.
The side mirrors were also polished out as above but were sealed with 119 as was the window frames. I also put it on the personalized plates that adorn this car. The tires were sprayed with DP gel with my air gun and then leveled with an applicator.
All in all a 7 hour job. I was losing sunlight quickly, but here are some shots I managed to get.
Thanks for looking. Comments appreciated.
